


perfect for you

by starsandfluff



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Arguing, F/M, Fluff, Gendrya - Freeform, Happy Ending, Implied Sexual Content, Kissing, Light Angst, Mostly Canon Compliant, Song: My Featherbed (ASoIaF), arya sails west, gendry is on the boat, m'lady teasing, m'lord teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-12 01:01:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19218427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsandfluff/pseuds/starsandfluff
Summary: Gendry wanted to say goodbye to Arya before she left but things don't go exactly as planned.title and inspiration from "Perfect for You" from Next to Normal (Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt)





	1. goodbye forever

**Author's Note:**

> This started as a one-shot that got out of hand, I really enjoyed writing it. I don't like the idea of Arya sailing off, but that's canon for this fic. I write a lot of different gendrya endings. Anyway I really hope you like this first chapter!

“You’re leaving,” Gendry said, walking up to her in the empty Winterfell courtyard. She turned around, expressionless.

“I am,” Arya said.  _ I’m sorry.  _ She thought.  _ I’m shit at goodbyes and Jon’s already gone forever and it’s just difficult. _

“So this is it? This is your goodbye forever?” Gendry asked in disbelief.  _ This is all I meant to you? Me having to find you to say goodbye, you didn’t even have the decency to tell me, I heard you were leaving from fucking Podrick!  _ He thought.

“I guess,” Arya said, not meeting his eyes.  _ I don’t like it either.  _ She added to herself. “you’re angry,”

“I—It’s just, did these mean nothing to you?” Gendry gestured with his hands wildly, unsure of what to say. “None of it? Why did you even...you’re just leaving, I thought, I thought you wanted me, I thought you loved me, Arya,”

“Of course, I love you, Gendry. This isn’t going to be easy for me, either, but we both have our lives ahead of us,” She looked into his deep blue eyes filled with sadness and hurt.  _ I’m the one who hurt you. But there was no other way. It was a lifetime of misery for me, or a temporary heartbreak for us both. I’m sorry.  _ Arya thought. “I loved you before you ever thought of me in that way, you were the one who left in the Riverlands, or have you suddenly forgotten?”

“That was different!” He shouted.  _ Oh because it only counts when I do something wrong?  _ Arya thought angrily.

“How!” She shouted back.  _ How the fuck was that any different from now?  _ She thought.

“I didn’t love you!” Gendry shouted, before immediately regretting what he’d said. But Arya wouldn’t hear it. She simply looked down, away from him, turned and started to walk away. “No, Arya, wait, I didn’t mean it like that,”

“No, it’s fine, I get it. Everything about us happened in Winterfell for you, you didn’t love me in Harrenhal or the Riverlands, that’s FINE! Go to the Stormlands, Gendry,” She said coldly, starting to walk off again.  _ Fuck him. He doesn’t matter anymore. It was never going to be him.  _ Arya thought, tears starting to form in her eyes.

“Wait, Arya—” Gendry said, running towards her.

“Fuck off! Just get the fuck away from me!” She shouted, shoving him backwards.  _ Don’t you ever fucking dare touch me again, you fucking bastard!  _ Arya thought.

“Please, Arya—” Gendry started to say, but she was already gone. “I love you, I’ve always loved you,”


	2. one night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gendry tries to say goodbye again, knowing she's only there for one more night. He visits Arya at the Heart Tree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally got the motivation to finish this (i had already written the dialogue)! This is the main chapter which refers to the 'Implied Sexual Content' warning but I promise it's not graphic, I wouldn't know how to write that. This is a pretty short chapter, like all of them, it was originally going to be a one-shot actually. I really hope you like it!

“You’re leaving tomorrow,” Gendry said, walking up to her at the Heart Tree. Arya had heard him coming, but something inside stopped her from simply walking away.  _ I don’t mean anything to him, but it’s not like I’ll see him again.  _ She thought, turning around to face him.

“You don’t need to say goodbye again, Gendry, you did a perfectly fine job last time,”  _ I fucked up. I fucking fucked up.  _ He thought, cursing himself.  _ She’s going to hate me for the rest of our lives. I fucking...of course I cared for her back then! Why couldn’t I have just fucking said that?! _

“Arry, I’m sorry—”

“Don’t,” Arya said.  _ Don’t fucking try to go back on your words. Don’t you fucking dare.  _ She thought. Gendry opened his mouth to interrupt, but he couldn’t think of anything to say. He simply nodded, standing there awkwardly.

“Well, it’s a nice ship, anyway,”

“‘Nice’?” She teased, but Gendry didn’t smile back.

“I just…I don’t want  _ that  _ to be your last thought of me,”

“Okay,”

“Wait what?” Gendry cocked his head to the side, and Arya tried to ignore how cute he looked, all awkward and confused. “Didn’t you just tell me to fuck off last night?”

“I did. But you said you didn’t want that to be our last moment,” Arya said, and Gendry nodded in agreement. “So change it.”  _ Oh shit, I didn’t think this far.  _ He thought.

“Um, well...I know that you’re right and that someday we’ll both get over each other, but I just want you to know that of course I cared about you back then. Of course I wanted to protect you, wanted to travel with you, wanted to be your  _ family _ . I was just stupid and hung up on the fact that you were all highborn and everything, and I’m sorry about that. I wish we’d gotten a better goodbye back then, but I’m hoping we can have one now,” Arya smiled shyly, looking down. She looked so soft and vulnerable in that moment, just like that day in the forge when they’d first reunited.  _ I don’t ever want to be the one to take that smile off her face.  _ He thought.  _ I just want this goodbye to be okay, I can’t fuck up everything with her.  _ “What d’you say, Arry?”

“That sounds nice,” Arya said after a pause.

“‘Nice’?” He teased.

“Stupid,”

“M’lady,”

“Shut up,”

“Will you ever come back?”  _ Please come back.  _ He thought.

“I don’t know,” Arya’s smile faded as she looked up at him. “Don’t wait for me, Gendry, don’t be your father,”  _ Don’t be miserable because of me. I won’t stay to make you happy, but I don’t want leaving to stop you from being happy.  _ Arya added to herself.  _ I love you, part of me always will. Maybe not in that way, but you’ll always be family to me, no matter how far I am. _

“Well I wasn’t going to start a war, but—”

“Don’t make this harder,” Arya interrupted. “just let me go, please,”

“I’ll try not to,” Both of them stood there silently, neither having much else to say. Gendry looked out at the setting sun and smirked, making Arya look at him confused. “You know, you’re only here for one night,”

“Yeah?” Arya said, not following. He looked at her for awhile, and then her eyes widened in understanding. “That would certainly be a different goodbye,”

“Arya, you don’t have to—”

“Yes,”

“Really?”

“Well not out here, I may not be the strongest follower of the Old Gods, but we’re not doing this against the Heart Tree,” They both laughed, looking around at all the snow and mud.

“But your bedroom’s so far,” Gendry whined, pulling Arya into his arms, and they rested their foreheads together.

“The forge isn’t,” Arya said, raising her eyebrow. He smiled in agreement, and Arya pulled him into a hungry and passionate kiss.

“I love you,” Gendry said, before her lips were suddenly on his again. They laughed in the kiss, fumbling awkwardly with their clothes.

“I love you too,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter should be up soon, I'm just going to make some final edits/read through it. It's been really fun playing with this fic idea. I really hoped you enjoyed this chapter, I hope it didn't feel too awkward!


	3. forest love, forest lass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arya and Gendry talk about their futures the morning after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter! I actually wrote this one before the second one lol. I'm really excited to post the last chapter to this little fic, it's been really fun to explore this idea, even if I don't think she should be on that boat. Hope you enjoy!

“You’re perfect,” Gendry said, clinging to his cloak as he sat up in the forge.

“I am not!” Arya insisted, smacking his arm lightly.  _ She’s so beautiful and tiny and adorable.  _ He thought as he wrapped his arms around her, Arya’s head pressing into his bare chest.

“Okay, you can be a bit of a pain in the arse,”

“Shut up,”

“Will you write to me, Arya, as friends, at least?” Gendry looked at her with pleading eyes.  _ I can’t lose you.  _ He thought.  _ Even if it’s only ink and paper, I can’t lose you.  _ “Write me all about your adventures?”

“I thought you couldn’t read,”

“I’ve been working on it with Davos, and I’ll get better,”  _ I’ll be good enough for you.  _ He thought.  _ I’ll make myself perfect for you. _

“So you’ll write to me about the Stormlands?” Arya asked hopefully.  _ You’ll still be my family, even an ocean away?  _ She thought.

“As m’lady commands,” Gendry bowed mockingly, and Arya shoved him against the sacks. He grabbed her arms, surprising Arya, and pulled her into a passionate kiss.

“Shut up, m’lord” Arya said, kissing him lightly.  _ I’ll miss you.  _ She thought.  _ I’ll miss how I feel around you. I’ll even miss your bullheadedness. _

_ I’ll miss you.  _ He thought.  _ I’ll miss that little smile you make when I call you ‘m’lady.’ I’ll miss looking up and seeing you watch me in the forge. I’ll miss watching the graceful but deadly way you spar in the courtyards. I’ll miss making faces at each other from across the room. I’ll miss seeing your eyes light up with joy. I’ll miss kissing you. I’ll miss waking up next to you. I’ll miss having someone who understands me. I’ll miss the one reason I even accepted this fucking lordship that split us apart...I never would have accepted it if it weren’t for you. Sure, I wanted a place to belong, but I found that with you and Davos and Jon. I never cared about lords and ladies, I just wanted to be enough for you. And now you’re fucking leaving Westeros. _

“I don’t...I don’t know if I want to go to Storm’s End,” Gendry said, hesitantly searching Arya’s face for some sort of reaction. But she simply looked back at him.

“I promise you’ll be a good lord, Gendry, and Davos will help you,” Arya said.  _ He’s scared. It’s not like he ever wanted anything to do with lords and ladies. But he could be a good lord if he wanted to.  _ She thought.

“It’s just I’ve never wanted this, I don’t want to be a lord,”

“Then don’t,” Arya stated plainly.  _ Then be a smith. Jon and Sansa would gladly welcome you here, or let you work in King’s Landing if the Street of Steel isn’t completely burnt.  _ She thought.

“Can I ask you something?”

“You just did,”

“Shut up, I’m serious,”

“Okay,”

“Okay, um...will you, would you consider taking me with you?” Gendry asked, and Arya stared at him in shock and confusion.

“What?” She blurted out after a moment.

“I don’t want to be some fancy lord, Arya, I only accepted it because I thought it meant I was good enough for you,”

“You’re more than enough for me, Gendry,” Arya said, smiling at him.  _ I should have thought about that before I proposed.  _ He thought.

“So take me with you, we can sail away together,” Gendry said, his eyes filled with love and hope.  _ I used to want to ride away with him, be an outlaw with him, just like Wenda the White Fawn.  _ Arya thought.  _ But I thought that was too Sansa-like, having some prince sweep her off her feet and ride away into the sunset. So I didn’t. And he got taken by the Red Woman anyway. But now, maybe those stories are too stupid, I used to love them when I was little, and they’re all I have left of Old Nan. I could be just like Nymeria, and have Gendry by my side. He could be my family, right there with me. _

“I…” Arya started to say.  _ I’ve always loved you, of course I’ll sail away with you, you’re my family, now and always.  _ She thought, staring into his deep blue eyes. “Yes,”

“See,” Gendry kissed her nose softly. “perfect,”

“Stop it, I’m not. But,” Arya looked at him with soft eyes shining in the morning light. “I could be perfect for you,”

“I could be perfect for you,” Gendry agreed.  _ Perfect.  _ He repeated in his head.  _ That sounds about right. _

“So, I guess Tom was right,”  _ Tom o’ Sevens, I’d always wondered why he winked at me when he sang ‘My Featherbed.’ I guess it was obvious even back then.  _ She mused.

“I could be your forest love,”

“And me, your forest lass,”

Then they sailed away. Together. And definitely not on a rowboat, as Gendry had insisted. Someday, maybe, they’d return to Westeros, to Winterfell. But for now, they were content right where they were. Arya and Gendry knew that whatever happened later on, they would always be perfect for each other because they’d be together, no matter the people they would become. And that, they said, was perfect for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that epilogue at the end was okay, I struggled with writing that. This chapter was a bit more inspired by "Perfect for You" and "My Featherbed" than the others, but anyway. I really hope you enjoyed reading this chapter and this fic as a whole, thank you so much for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Ah! That got more angsty than I originally planned lol, I promise there'll be much more fluff in the next two chapters! I actually wrote the dialogue for all 3 chapters in one go yesterday, but I'm just now adding in all the actions/internal monologue stuffs, so I hope to have the next chapter up soon! Thank you so so much for reading, and I really hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
